In a motorman's cab in a train, for example, a door operating unit is provided next to a platform-side door. The door operating unit includes a fully-automatic switch enabling a fully-automatic state in which the train doors on the station-platform side can be simultaneously opened or simultaneously closed; a sectional door-opening switch for opening only some doors among a plurality of doors on one side of a vehicle and keeping the other doors closed; and a semi-automatic opening/closing switch enabling a semi-automatic state where passengers can open and close doors manually. The sectional door-opening switch and the semi-automatic opening/closing switch are used, for example, in order to maintain the air inside the train the same state when the train stops at a station for a long time, for example, because of a shuttle service or waiting for other express trains.
For example, if the semi-automatic opening/closing switch is selected when a train arrives at a station where it will stop, the doors are unlocked. With this configuration, when a passenger manually opens a door or operates an open switch near a door, only a specific door can be opened. In the semi-automated state of the door opening/closing operation, doors can be closed anytime by the operation of passengers irrespective of how long the train stops, and doors that are not used by passengers are not opened. When the sectional door-opening switch is selected, only some predetermined doors are opened. As a result, the efficiency of cooling and heating in the train can be improved, and energy consumption due to unnecessary opening and closing of doors can be reduced.
With the conventional technique described in Patent Literature 1 listed below, the configuration is such that, by using a semi-automatic door opening/closing unit, doors that have been opened are automatically closed after a predetermined time elapses. With this configuration, doors that have been opened by passengers can be automatically closed after a predetermined time elapses, and therefore it is possible to prevent doors from being left open while enabling a semi-automatic door opening/closing operation to be maintained. Furthermore, the state of the air in the train can be maintained while the safety of passengers is secured.